Mixed reality is a significant improvement of augmented reality (AR), the technology that gave rise to the Pokémon GO craze in 2016. Interactive virtual objects might get mapped to the actual environment in a “hybrid” environment, merging the real and virtual worlds.
The VR, AR, and MR sectors are rapidly expanding. According to International Data Corporation (IDC), the AR and VR markets will generate more than $162 billion in sales by 2020. To put that in context, these markets generated roughly $5.2 billion in revenue in 2016.
Mixed reality’s advantages include the following:
- Quality Assurance Processes that are more efficient: On-site teams can use Mixed Reality to evaluate the quality of their work, reduce errors, and stimulate quick communication loops. It can also assist in integrating quality assurance into the manufacturing process by enabling real-time visual examination of the constructed product.
- Maintenance Calls Have Decreased: Organizations that use obsolete manuals are gradually phasing them out. They’re now adopting Mixed Reality to cut down on maintenance callout times. It also provides a hands-free way to connect with an expert quickly. To put it another way, an engineer can dial a support number and share the same screen as the remote expert on the other end. This adaptability allows the expert to provide instructions and solutions without fear of being misunderstood.
- Advancement of Employee Training: Employees can obtain instructions or attend training sessions via mixed reality instead of scrolling through multiple manual pages. Because sessions can occur on the job, the time spent developing training modules and training costs is reduced. A coaching specialist, for example, can pre-record a module, which will then be kept in a training library for employees.
- Reduce the Skilled Labor Shortage: Between 2018 and 2028, a rising skills shortage might result in 2.4 million job openings. Employers can take action today to maintain critical skills by utilizing remote help via HMDs. When attracting new talent, organizations can use new and familiar technologies to appeal to a younger generation. And you won’t have to worry about hiring low-skilled individuals to fill open positions.
Mixed Reality Applications
- Electronic commerce: Virtual, augmented, and mixed reality are transforming every industry. Take, for example, spatial computing, a novel approach to seeing and engaging with data. When it comes to marketing, mobile-augmented reality holds a lot of promise. With your mobile device, you can look at a watch on your wrist, wear sunglasses in selfie mode, try on shoes, and apply make-up. E-commerce stands to benefit the most from mobile AR.
- The automobile: The process of purchasing a car is already moving toward Omni-commerce. Consumers may now view vehicles, purchase them, and arrange financing without ever having to set foot in a showroom. Customers will be able to test new features, comprehend car dimensions, and accessorize their vehicle using VR and AR, accelerating the digital transformation of the buyer’s journey.
- Attire: In the fashion sector, utilizing AR and VR is a game-changer. Due to COVID-19, many brick-and-mortar businesses are closed, and of those that are open, few allow consumers to try on garments. If online garment purchases continue to rise, offering an augmented reality (AR) experience (so customers can view things in the “real world”) will be a significant benefit to the customer and boost purchasing confidence.
- Playing video games: Because there are so many uses, I believe VR and AR will continue to thrive in the gaming industry. In terms of augmented reality, retail offers a few new applications that allow you to try on garments and obtain more information about things. In VR, the entertainment and educational verticals can grow, but consumer adoption of VR headsets is restricted.
- Tourism And Hospitality: The hospitality and tourism business is one business that can profit from VR/AR marketing. Hotels that offer a virtual tour of their rooms and amenities may notice an increase in bookings, while tour operators can show travellers a sample of what they would see if they book a trip with them.
- Occurrences: The one business where VR and AR must be implemented right now is events. Because no one can travel like they used to, the chance to reimagine how events are handled and elevate them to something far more than a Zoom meeting is ripe for the plucking. Imagine being able to go to far-flung locations using virtual reality in between meeting sessions or perhaps holding complete conferences in virtual reality.
- Education at the University Level: Higher education is among the sectors that will be impacted. Rising high school juniors and seniors cannot take campus visits due to the times we live in. Meanwhile, offering VR and AR tours to these potential students and their families is necessary to maintain enrollment rates.
- Advocacy and lobbying for public policy: VR and AR might have a significant impact on policy advocacy and lobbying. While sitting in Congress or a state legislature, it isn’t easy to imagine what natural areas, watersheds, and wilderness look like. VR/AR can be fantastic tools for bringing these places to life for politicians choosing their fate.
- Renovations, both commercial and residential: VR and AR technologies will have a positive impact on the commercial and residential refurbishment industries. Companies will provide a more immersive consumer experience by visualizing and materializing future developments with this technology. It will be easier to bring their prospects’ ideas to life, which will help them close the deal.
- Home Furnishings and Merchandise: In addition to real estate, I believe the furniture and home products businesses will increasingly use VR and AR. Millennial homeowners will shop for stuff to fill their new living quarters as the housing market heats up. The ability to visualize an item in your area and then order it online with contactless delivery is a fantastic feature many people will take advantage of.
Which Engine Is Best For Mixed Reality Apps:
Unity Engine: Unity is well-suited to the creation of cross-platform apps. Making a structure for another platform merely takes a few clicks. Unity has a unique view on the market as the top developer IDE for AR and VR with full cross-platform compatibility.
Unity includes built-in support for several platform-specific features and a comprehensive VR/AR API, especially after the 2017 version release. It entails the upkeep of nearly all VR platforms. The Oculus Rift, Steam VR/Vive, Playstation VR, Gear VR, Microsoft HoloLens, and Google’s Daydream View are all supported “out of the box.”
Unreal Engine: With native integration with the most popular platforms such as Oculus VR, SteamVR, HoloLens 2, Magic Leap, Windows Mixed Reality, ARKit, and ARCore, Unreal Engine provides the highest-quality solution for creating augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) experiences. With OpenXR compatibility, you can make your apps future-proof for new devices. Unity and Unreal Gaming Engines support a variety of platforms.
- ARKit – This is one of the most powerful SDKs for creating AR apps in the world today, provided by Apple for all iOS users. With the use of vertical tracking and outstanding 3D graphics, ARKit provides users with an unrivaled AR experience. ARKit allows users to have uninterrupted augmented reality experiences and share them with others. Real-world objects can be included in AR experiences, providing consumers with even more immersive experiences.
- ARCore – This is Google’s main SDK for all Android 7.0 users. Every day, the number of devices that support ARCore increases. This SDK gives APIs access to all key AR technologies, including motion tracking, environmental comprehension, and light estimates. It’s feasible to create incredible AR experiences and augment current apps with AR capabilities using these deliverables.
- Vuforia – The Vuforia Engine provides a wide range of capabilities and targets to help you customize your AR development process. Vuforia Model Targets, one of our newest features, is a critical capability for both commercial and industrial applications. Model Targets enable programs to recognize and track tangible items such as machines, autos, and toys using a CAD or digital 3D model. This capability can deliver AR work instructions and procedural guidance to assembly workers and service personnel in the factory or on the job for industrial applications.
Things that have already had MR experience:
Microsoft HoloLens – Microsoft HoloLens is a unique augmented reality holographic headgear with extraordinary capabilities. Many sensors, processors, and cameras work together to create a perfect image overlaid in the real environment. HoloLens leverages natural interface commands – look, gesture, and voice – to achieve this effect. The Microsoft HoloLens may be used for 2D and 3D (holographic) apps, games, and phone calls. The ability to interact with the content is another unique feature of HoloLens.
Technical Points:
- Head tracking: four visible light cameras
- Eye-tracking: 2 IR cameras
- Depth: 1-MP time-of-flight (ToF) depth sensor
- IMU Accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer
- Camera: 8-MP stills, 1080p30 video
- SoC: Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 Compute Platform
- HPU: The second-generation custom-built holographic processing unit
- Memory: 4-GB LPDDR4x system DRAM
- Storage: 64-GB UFS 2.1
- Wi-Fi: Wi-Fi 5 (802.11ac 2×2)
- Bluetooth: 5
- USB Type-C
Vuzix, Meta – Vuzix is a company that specializes in smart and augmented reality glasses. Vuzix has three popular gadgets that are already well-liked by customers: Vuzix Blade is a Vuzix product. Vuzix Blade Smart Glasses utilize waveguide technology and are lightweight. The Glasses can also provide instructions via GPS and snap images. If necessary, Vuzix M300 Smart Glasses can also be utilized as safety glasses for your employees. It contains a built-in HD camera to ensure that you don’t miss any important moments and GPS systems for consistent direction. Meta Smart Glasses are designed to assist you in your daily activities. Virtual gaming, face recognition, and holographic projections are all part of it. The Meta Smart Glasses are similar to Tony Stark’s Iron Man glasses.
Technical points:
- Motion Sensors: 3 axes gyro, three-axis accelerometer, three-axis magnetometer
- Ambient light sensor Included
- Contrast ratio Transparent Display
- Video: 4K 30fps
- Weight: 100gm (Smart Viewer)
ODG – ODG smart glasses are more than simply a device; they’re a complicated computer system that transports viewers into a new environment. R-7 Smartglasses, R-7HL Smartglasses, R-8 Smartglasses, and R-9 Smartglasses are the four greatest models from ODG. And each product is intended for a wide range of applications in business, manufacturing, and entertainment.
Technical points:
- Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 2.7GHz quad-core Processor 3GB Pop LP-DDR3 RAM
- 64 GB Storage
- Dual 720p 16:9 stereoscopic see-thru displays at up to 80fps
- ReticleOS Custom Framework on Android Marshmallow
- Bluetooth 4.1, 802.11ac, GNSS (GPS/GLONASS)
- Dual 650mAh Lithium-Ion Batteries
- Multiple Integrated Inertial Measuring Units with 3-axis accelerometer, 3-axis gyroscope, 3-axis magnetometer
- Autofocus Camera (1080p @ 60fps, 720p @ 120fps)
- Camera orientation available in Portrait or Landscape
- Magnetically Swappable Lenses
- Magnetic Stereo Ear Buds
Magic Leap – One of the most anticipated MR headsets on the market today is Magic Leap. Because of the unique manner of beaming light, it promises to take us to a new degree of immersion. Aside from that, Magic Leap does not have the pixelation that other AR and VR headsets do, which is why Magic Leap mixed reality feels more real than reality.
Technical points:
- NVIDIA Parker SOC
- 2 Denver 2.0 64-bit cores + 4 ARM Cortex A57 64-bit cores
- NVIDIA Pascal GPU, 256 CUDA cores
- 8 GB RAM
- 128 GB SSD storage
- Bluetooth 4.2, Wi-Fi 802.11ac/b/g/n, USB-C
- Up to three hours of continuous use battery life
- Runs on proprietary Lumin OS